Port Macquarie-Hastings Council engaged professional services company GHD, in a partnership with Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), to start work on the local government area-wide traffic study in late 2015.

The council recently received the study in four volumes from GHD.

The traffic study across the area will allow the council to analyse traffic movements and model scenarios to determine what road upgrades and potential new roads may be required. 

Council acting director Andrew Doig said council staff members were satisfied the report was in a suitable format for internal distribution but at this stage it had not been presented to the councillors.

Staff are reviewing the final documents, which are in a technical format, and will be talking to RMS about how they present that to councillors and then the general public.

“The principal objective of the project is to develop a road and traffic management strategy for the Port Macquarie-Hastings road network for the next 20 years,” Mr Doig said.

“That includes consideration of transport systems for services, transport options that are safe and functional, the current road network and the current demands and travel patterns, constraints that exist already, forecast future travel demands and so forth.”

Meanwhile, high-level investigations into orbital road links are ongoing.

The Port Macquarie outer orbital link road corridor feasibility investigation is reviewing the potential construction of new link roads in Port Macquarie.

These roads include an east‐west link between the Oxley Highway and Ocean Drive as well as a north‐ south link between the Oxley Highway and Hastings River Drive.

It will provide direction on appropriate corridors, potential road alignments and the process which the council will need to follow if it decides to advance with the project.

Options will feed into the area-wide traffic study.

The council also has a Regional Transport Infrastructure Steering Group.